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El Destino de los von Gottlieb (Relato)
"I shall tell you of the Singular Histories and Lamentable Fates of the brothers von Gottlieb... Look into the fire, gentles, for my words can paint pictures in the flames. Look deep, and drift slowly on the heat..." The old man closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. His voice was soft and warm in the candlelit gloom. "Lothar and Johann von Gottlieb. Regard them, in their fine silks and soft leathers. They crave power, glory, sucess and all that accompanies such - much as do other men. They are ambitious, and in this they match their father, but of him i will speak no further; the old Baron is not yet in his grave". "Darkness is in their hearts. They have listened, watched and learned, understanding little. Slaanesh has promised Lothar pleasures beyond pleasure. Khorne has offered nothing, but Johann demands nothing. He has already killed, and found it to his taste. See, now the two hate each other! Brotherly love often turns to the deepest hate". "And their hate drove them from home, into the bosom of the Chaos Powers. Did Johann chase Lothar, seeking his blood? Or did he run from the decadent pleasures Lothar sought in his company? It matters not. Each chose the steep and slippery path of Chaos, hatred the first handhold, the loathing of a brother the first step. Now begins the scramble! 'Such a short, easy climb', croons Slaanesh. 'A true warrior has no fear', bellows Khorne!" "Their climb can end in but one of two ways: the triumphant shriek, voiced from the throat of a newly-birthed daemon; or the gibbering of a once-man, a Chaos Spawn, wallowing in the stench of its own failure, condemned by fate and abandoned by mercy. Which fate is worse? Ah, no there is a question..." "Johann von Gottlieb. Murderer, hater, willing servant of Khorne. His bloody road led him deeper into Chaos. He was unwise when he first killed, and with each killing his folly grew. Each death marked him as Khorne's own, each drop of blood raised him in Khorne's sight. But it was his last killing as a true man that marked him out: Johann slaughtered one of Khorne's Champions". "In that moment he bellowed his victory to the sky. The champion's blood was for Khorne. The champion's armour, a suit of darkest metal, forged in some far smithy of Chaos, was for Johann. In that moment, Johann's handhold was firm, his reach was long enough for the climb ahead. And in that moment, the darkness within burst free, and Johann was marked as the Blood God's servant. Two terrible curved horns, like those of a ram, sprouted from his forehead". "And what of the other von Gottlieb? There are many roads to Chaos, and Lothar galloped down his chosen path. Nothing was beyond him. No creature, man, woman or child, living or dead, was safe from his depravity. His behaviour would have shamed a Bretonnian". At the back of the room a young woman sniggered and leaned forward in her chair. The old man sipped his wine and held up a finger. Questions died on the girl's lips. "I will say no more of that. But, young lady, you also wish to know whether Lothar was marked by Chaos. You want to kno whether you could see the mark... as if that proved his guilt. Lothar was tainted from the moment he began his climb towards the power and pleasure of Slaanesh! "His loyalty was hidden from casual eyes. It was his hands, my dear, his hands. Fools wondered why Lothar always wore gloves, and pitied his rheumatic fingers. The creature within had shown itself, and Lothar's long, clever fingers had become bestial claws. The first mark of Slaanesh was made, and Lothar bore it with quiet and misguided pride..." "Many are they who debauch themselves in the name of Slaanesh, and Lothar fell in with one such sect. He rose in their councils, for his mind was apt to their purposes. He was inventive and quick-witted, and he amused his friends with the originality and vitality of his contributions to their cause". "As Lothar climbed in secret stature his loyalty became obvious to even the most casual observer. No longer were his hans his only mark. He bore the new stigmata in an horrific fashion. His tongue had been persuasive, a seductive lure to the unwary whom he used for his pleasure and cast aside. His tongue remained a snare, but no normal man had such a twisting thing within his jaws. The lash of his tongue became dangerous indeed!" "Lothar fled, the Witch Hunters at his heels, until he reached the Chaos Wastes. Already a champion in the cause of Slaanesh, he turned and killed his pursuers and cursed forever the lands of his birth. Free to wander and despoil, he embraced Slaanesh with renewed vigor". The fire spluttered and flared as its resinous wood burned and popped. Horned and winged shadows danced behind the old man as he continued the tale. "Johann's way was ever upwards in the favour of Khorne. His ruthless course was marked in blood and skulls: blood for his god, and skulls piled high on the battlefields and harsh meadows of Chaos. Death had no rest with Johann's work!" "As thought and reason slipped away from him, Johann burned with a hate for all those too weak to take the warrior's path. It gnawed at his heart, and found expression in the changes that time wrought in the once-man. There had been a young Johann, proud of his looks; now there was Johann the Beast. His face had been handsome; now it was the snarling muzzle of a hunting dog..." "Johann's face matched his nature perfectly. He had become a hunte of men, but he was, in deed and thought, no longer a true man. Only the outer shell remained, for within he was Khorne's creature". "Blood an slaughter had gained the Blood God's favour for Johann, and further blood kept Khorne's approval. And as Johann grew in power and climbed still higher, his position among Khorne's chosen was distinguished in new ways. The higher Johann climbed in power, the mightier his reach and the more savage his behaviour became. Ever and anon, the weakest of his warband hesitated at his callousness and were counted among the dead for their squeamishness". "And as his triumphant progress continued, Johann lost the vestiges of his human form. No more could he be seen as a man - an extra pair of arms sprang from his shoulders! His unearthly armour, forged from the stuff of Chaos, writhed and changed of its own accord to match his new frame, and in doing so became more intricate and elaborate". "The other von Gottlieb had achieved much. In a secret ritual Lothar had, for his devotion to Slaanesh, been granted armor of his own. It was fashioned from pale leathers, perhaps the magical skins of Chaos creatures, but its appearance was deceptive. It formally marked him as one of Slaanesh's chosen champions, a despoiler and taker of pleasure". "His status was equal to that of Johann, his brother and hated enemy, though hatred had become almost-forgotten baggage from his past. He did not think often of the past, for remembrance of what he had been brought realisation of what he had become. For by no means all the infections of Slaanesh are taints of the spirit. Lothar's flesh was prey to the warpings and mutations of his calling. And as his chosen Chaos power reawarded him, his conditions preyed upon his thoughts, diverting Lothar from the pleasures to hand..." "Johann had no diversions. Thought was driven from his mind in a welter of gore and destruction, a curse of weaklings and the disloyal. His path was sure and his climb awash with the blood of those he had slain in Khorne's name. He had scaled the heights of devotion to the Blood God, and yet his journey was not over. In his still-mortal hand he clutched a Daemon Blade, a creature of darkness forged anew and given terrible shape with a keen, blood-hungry edge. Its clawed hilts and pommel grasped at Johann's loyalty and held it steady". "Armed and armoured in Khorne's colours and in a fashion pleasing to himself, it had been a long time since Johann could have passed as an ordinary man. And yet, through Khorne's power he could appear as mundane as any normal man. His appearance itself could deceive and trick, sowing uncertainty amongst his enemies. In that moment of doubt, Johann could throw aside his mask - much as a mummer at the end of a play - and, in the instant of doubt, strike". The old man paused, and stared into the fire for a moment. His listeners, their own drinks forgotten, watched as he filled his wine glass and sipped with surprising delicacy. "Doubt breeds further doubts, and Lothar's uncertainty was indeed prolific. His thoughts weighed him down, or perhaps it was the further pain of his latest transformation. Lothar's eyes, as cunning as his tongue at weaking the resolve of his sometimes willing victims, were merging into a massive and singular orb. Possibly Lothar's alteration was a punishment from Slaanesh, for a neglected lover is vengeful indeed". "Lothar paused in his climb to power, and discovered anew that an upward path often has no safe downward course. Trapped and helpless, doomed to climb further and yet lacking the daring and courage to take the final steps, Lothar slipped. He hung to his sanity, or at least such of it as remained, by his fingertips..." "Lothar's thoughts, so full of pleasure and pain, ravaged by plague and doubt, finally mastered him. He fell from his state of disgrace and plunged into the abyss of the used and discarded". "Stronger men than he had dashed themselves to pieces in the service of Chaos and a weaker creature would have ended its own existence rather than face Lothar's fate with the Chaos Spawn. Yet Lothar had a strength of his own: as he fell, his purpose in following Slaanesh was reborn, and in his changed nature loyalty flawered again like a rank weed. Even as he was changed into a monstrous creature, Lothar shrieked eternal allegiance to his dark lord". "Lothar's frame was tormented and warped into an inhuman form by his new position in Slaanesh's hierarchy. He had been a champion, a daemon awaiting birth, now he was condemned to a horrible, mindless existence. A wattled crest grew upon his head; his cyclopean eye became stalked; tentacles, tipped with cruel claws, sprang from his shoulders; his torso swelled to enormous size, pendulous and repulsive, and two extra legs grew from his hips, as hairy and twisted as those of a goat". "His fall from humanity was complete". "As Lothar's fall as ending so, too, was Johann's climb". "The other von Gottlieb had also been twisted further by Chaos, and a tail, tipped by a snapping, human face, waved at his back. Yet such a minor mark was of little consequence to Johann. The last handhold was taken, the last scramble made, the last victims were slaughtered by the mortal Johann. He had kept his bloody faith with Khorne and earned his final reward". "Johann had reached the summit of his bloody ambition. He was no longer Khorne's champion..." "Khorne's faithful servant screamed the news of his victory to his master. Johann, once a man, was born anew in daemon flesh". "Vulnerable mortality, which had been his rightful inheritance, was cast aside. He was a servant of Khorne in all ways and truly an inmortal creature of Chaos. He was filled with a daemon's cunning and thirst of blood, a craving that has no mortal equal". "Johann had ascended the pinnacle of darkness, and all his wildest dreams were within his grasp. Deathless, an eternity of blood and death stretched before him..." "And eternity had, in its turn, cast aside Lothar von Gottlieb, also once a man. Pains and pleasures of which he had never dreamed were now his for the taking. The pleasure of warm flesh, torn from its owner, and the pain of howling, filled with loss, at an indifferent sky". "Lothar and Johann von Gottlieb. Regard them, in their fates. They craved power, glory, success and all that accompanies such - much as do other men. They were ambitious, and in this they matched their father. The way that they satisfied those ambitions is open for any who dare take it. You, perhaps..." The old man looked at his audience. The young woman at the back shuffled her feetand stared at the floor. "So my tale is complete". The old man swilled the last of his wine round his glass. It was a deep, dark red in the lights from the fire. "And how, you may ask, do i know so much of Lothar and Johann von Gottlieb? Think of this; Lothar, the decadent and depraved fool, run with the spawn. And I? I tell tales to the unwary..." Ascenso al Caos hermanos von gottlieb parte 2.png hermanos von gottlieb parte 3.png hermanos von gottlieb parte 4.png hermanos von gottlieb parte 5.png hermanos von gottlieb parte 6.png hermanos von gottlieb parte 7.png Fuente * Suplemento Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (3ª Edición). Categoría:Relato Guerreros del Caos Categoría:Pendiente de traducir Categoría:Relato de Rol